heh, i have a VR299 that does exactly the same thing. 
i think it is the result of a nice big transistor that is near death and 
wont work til it gets properly warm. mine has worked reliably as long as
i let it sit (only about 10 minues required for mine so far) and then, as you
mention, i must turn it off and then on again. 
unless you want ot go looking thru testing components i'd just leave it
as it is.. at least mine has not gotten any worse and still works fine if 
left on, so i dont have any good incentive to go poking in there.. :) 

happy hacking,
isildur

On Thu, 22 Feb 2001, leo herranen wrote:

> I have a problem: My VR299 doesn't work the way it did before. In fact, it
> only works after keeping it on for 30 minutes and turning power off and
> back on... I suspect... well, really I don't know the exact word... I can't
> find it from my dictionary but from the Finnish version I can translate
> "cold soldering seam" or sumthing... Maybe Erno can translate it?
> -- 
> Leo Herranen| DEC BC09J olis tarpeen           
> a.k.a lXa   |"mouse button: One of the buttons on a mouse pointing
> ------------| device. Mouse buttons can be pressed, released,
> dragged, clicked, and double-clicked."  -OSF/Motif Programmer's Guide
>